The impact of job and organizational demands on marital or relationship satisfaction and conflict among Australian civil engineers

The results of a survey of professional civil engineers working in the Australian construction industry are reported (n = 182). The survey examined the effect of a range of job and organizational demands on the marital or relationship satisfaction of respondents. The effect of demographic characteristics was also examined. The results of correlation and regression analyses provide support for linkages between demographic characteristics, job or organizational sources of work-related stress and marital/relationship satisfaction and conflict. Different variables were significantly correlated with three dimensions of relationship quality. The results suggest that the single most important factor in determining civil engineers' experiences of relationship quality is the number of hours they work each week. It is argued that the implementation of work-life balance initiatives by engineering organizations may benefit employees. However, for such initiatives to be successful, engineering organizations and their employees must deviate from the socially constructed norm of rigid, long work hours that prevails in the Australian construction industry.     

Occupational stress and job demand,control and support factors among construction project consultants

Occupational stress affects the health and wellbeing of people who work, and the construction industry is recognized as a high-stress working environment. The relationship between job demands, job control, workplace support, and experiences of stress in the South African construction context is investigated, using hierarchical regression, factor analysis and structural equation modeling to explore the strength of thirteen factor relationships with perceived stress. Data were gathered from an on-line questionnaire survey response sample of 676 architects, civil engineers, quantity surveyors, and project and construction managers. Predictors displaying a significant relationship with occupational stress are the presence of work–life imbalance, the need to ‘prove’ oneself, hours worked per week, working to tight deadlines, and support from line managers in difficult situations at work. Existing theories of occupational stress are confirmed but not completely supported. The construction industry should give attention to how the need to work long hours is justified. Organizations should look to improving managerial and collegial support for construction professionals, but be careful in engaging in socializing and project team-building activities. Further research will need to focus more deeply on construction-specific job demand factors; explore why women professionals appear to experience more stress than men; and aim to develop reliable early-warning detection techniques for construction professionals.     

Transgression in and of the City

For Turkish artist and educator Can Altay ‘today's cities are full of limits’. This unevenness can be regarded as the manifestation of current investment patterns and political and cultural conflicts. Does, however, transgression offer opportunities to subvert this? Is it possible for a city's inhabitants, artists and architects to open up boundaries and through the power of presence to intervene in the status quo?     

Sources of competitive advantage of Turkish construction companies in international markets

Michael Porter's diamond framework, a relatively recent attempt to improve our existing knowledge on the sources of competitive advantage, is applied to the Turkish construction industry. The results of this undertaking challenge a common approach that attributes Turkish contractors' success in international markets to labour cost advantages and geographic and cultural proximity to several promising markets. In the light of the diamond framework, Turkish contractors' advantages are found not to be limited to these ‘factor conditions’ and ‘chance’ events. There are other important advantages behind their success, such as the existence of a dynamic home market, favourable entrepreneurial variables, and pressures to upgrade stemming from intense domestic rivalry. The analysis also points to the areas in which they face troubles, including problems induced by the government, financing difficulties and the weak international position of the Turkish design engineering and consultancy services industry.     

谈土建监理工程师的相关工作

结合工作经验,以具体工程案例为依据,对土建监理工程师的相关工作内容进行了探讨,分别从质量控制、安全管理及监理资料三个方面入手,阐述了土建监理工程师应做好的工作,以促进监理事业的发展。     

英雄主义和幕后导演 日本建筑师与东京奥林匹克及其后的都市创造

文章分三部分。第一,回顾了1964年东京奥运会场馆建筑决定启用日本本土建筑师的经过,以及为了实现丹下健三的方案,建筑界老前辈的努力、政治家的支持。同时,文章指出奥运会建筑这一大事件对后世的影响,即构筑了建筑师与结构师结伴而行的合作模式,最后,分析了东京奥运会和1970年大阪世博会对城市影响的差异和原因。第二,介绍了日本熊本县已经实践了20年、至今仍在继续的建筑师推荐制度,通过这个制度决定公共建筑设计人。至今熊本县除了农业大县的知名度以外,还因县内数量众多的建筑师作品而获得了“艺术大县”的名声。第三,介绍了20世纪70年代以来日本兴起的市民参与城市创造的运动。这是从政治家、开发商、建筑师们制造现代城市的权力中尝试分权的民主运动,从使用者的角度干预城市的形成。市民组织中的建筑专业人士在这里起到幕后导演的作用。     

Revolution of Chinese architectural design at the new-type urbanization stage

Witnessing more than three decades of sustained and rapid economic growth, China has become a nation that enjoys the fastest rate of urbanization; the largest quantities of civil construction; the most obvious urban development to be “newer”, “bigger” and “higher”; and the most prosperous architectural design market worldwide. In terms of the construction industry, housing construction totals 31.3 billion square meters, occupying more than 70% of the floor area of the existing stock houses. It is safe to say that the construction industry significantly boosts GDP growth, expands the number of jobs, and improves the living conditions of the masses. Related to this is the need to end the architectural guidelines of the planned economy era economizing on food and clothing and instead step into a new historic stage allowing bold pursuit of architectural aesthetics and individuality. A group of architects who have social ideals, adhere faithfully to professional standards and pledge to pursue architectural innovation are active in China. Instead of simply converting the overwhelming opportunities brought to carry economic benefits, they dare to embrace the challenges imposed on enhancing architectural connotation and create a batch of high-level work that lives up to expectations of the era, marking the achievement of reform and rapid urbanization in China. Yet, as time goes on, the promotion of national development concepts, ideas of social consumption and the masses’ cultural level establishes new requirements for the architectural design industry, architects and architectural design works. An appeal is thus made against Chinese architects for a summary, reflection and proactive anticipation to respond to the new requirements of the era.     

Collective learning,collective knowledge and learning networks in construction

The interrelationships between collective learning, collective knowledge and learning networks are complex and difficult, especially in a construction context. A questionnaire survey was carried out in Hong Kong to test the hypothesis that practitioners who need a wider domain of knowledge for work learn more actively through their learning networks. This empirical work revealed a positive association between the demand for learning from others at work and the size of construction practitioners' learning networks. The analysis also revealed two opposing aspects of practitioners' learning behaviour influenced by the nature of their work. First, civil engineers tend to manage larger learning networks, given that they very often need to seek advice from other practitioners to deal with issues beyond their specialities at work and coordinate outputs of other practitioners as the project leader. Second, draughtsmen and clerks of works (or inspectors of works), whose work mainly involves complying with a finite scope of predetermined instructions and rules, appear not very active in network learning. These findings will be useful in developing learning policy for enhancing the competitiveness of the construction industry.     

Clients’ assessment of architects’ performance in building delivery process: Evidence from Nigeria

The overall intent of this research is to provide architects with information that can be used to improve their performance so as to optimally satisfy the client's requirements and achieve high-quality overall project performance in Nigerian construction industry. Architect performance criteria were identified based on literature within the domain of architect responsibilities. The assessment of architects’ performance was carried out through a questionnaire survey of clients of recently completed building projects in Nigeria. Analysis of data includes comparison of criteria using importance–performance index analysis. Factor analysis was carried out on criteria where architects are falling below average, to group and explore the latent structure of the criteria in the data. The results showed that the architect needs to focus on management skills and ability, buildability, design quality, project communication, project integration and client focus. These results would encourage architects to perform better within their full responsibilities in the building delivery process and deliver high-quality projects within Nigerian construction industry.     

宇航事业与建筑师——先知先觉者创新的悠悠历程

科学技术的飞跃发展,使人们对宇宙的探索成为可能。今天,地球环境的日益恶化,极端天气的频繁肆虐,使移民太空的构想仿佛变得迫切。作为人类宇航事业帝国之一的俄罗斯,长久以来始终热爱宇航事业这个主题。本文回顾了20世纪初苏俄前卫派创作中对宇航事业的实验性探索。深入探讨宇航事业、建筑师与宇宙建筑的关系和相互间的推动作用,反映了在工业革命后技术迅猛发展的社会,建筑师的参与和探索对社会各方面的深层次的变革的思索和意义。     

工民建工程防水防渗施工技术的探讨

工业与民用建筑工程质量的好坏与人们密切相关。尽管我国当前建筑工程行业已经有了很大进步,但是工民建工程在施工中仍然存在一些不足之处,其中最为突出的就是工民建工程的防水防渗。本文以此为研究内容,对工民建防水防渗施工技术进行分析探讨,希望能够提高我国工民建施工质量。     

Tectonics and architectonic quality in recently published Finnish log architecture: Corresponding architects’ perceptions

Due to the global increase in wood construction, it is crucial for architects to understand wood. In Finland, log building, a special subset of industrially manufactured massive timber construction materials is experiencing a renaissance. Cultural aspects combined with newer technical developments make log a complex material from the viewpoint of architectonic expression. To inform practicing architects, the aim of this study is to explore how the tectonics of logs contribute to the architectonic quality of log architecture. Semi-structured interviews among architects of twelve recently published log buildings are conducted. The results describe how architectonic quality is perceived among participants, and features of logs related to tectonics that they consider to be of importance in terms of architectonic quality. These features include the statics of log construction and log's nature as a simultaneously insulating, load-bearing and visual material. Differences between industrial and hand-hewn logs, as well as other architectural aspects of using logs in contemporary architecture are discussed. Especially the “non-settling” log was perceived to have manifold implications for the architectonic possibilities of log architecture. The results are of practical importance to designing architects and the log industry. Theoretical implications include tangible information on architectonic quality and tectonics of log building.     

Engineering the Rural Idyll: Road Construction and the Peri-urban Landscape in Belgium, 1925–1940

As in many other Western countries, the road network in Belgium was subject to an extensive modernisation project during the interbellum period. This paper analyses how this project affected the relationship between the road and landscape. In the absence of a comprehensive landscape project for road construction from the government, other parties played an important role in defining the road's relation to the landscape. Through their publications, images and discourses, an idealised image of landscape—a rural idyll—became interwoven with the narrative of the modern road. We will first position this Belgian project vis-à-vis other road projects abroad, and describe why landscape was a non-issue for the Belgian government and its engineers. Subsequently, we will examine how other parties—the road association, the construction industry, urban planners and architects—appropriated fragments of landscape to frame or support their own projects.     

建筑产业现代化背景下地方高校土木工程专业面临的挑战与机遇

建筑产业现代化对地方高校土木工程专业建设与发展有重要影响。结合连云港市建筑业发展现状,以淮海工学院土木工程专业建设为例,分析了建筑产业现代化背景下地方高校土木工程专业建设面临的挑战与机遇,以期为地方高校土木工程专业建设提供有益参考。     

An Art of Connectivity

Do building information modelling (BIM) systems sufficiently cater for the subtleties of the architect's role? Tristan Gobin, Sebastian Andraos and Thibault Schwartz of London-based robot control specialists HAL Robotics think not. They advocate the development of systems that offer more levels of abstraction, allowing architects, engineers and others who are not necessarily familiar with source code to assist in the elaboration of platform languages. Only then will they become true tools for creativity that reinforce continuity between the various actors involved in building design and construction.     

结构的姿态 蛇形画廊夏日凉亭的建造思考

蛇形画廊夏季展馆的设计为国际知名建筑师们提供了一个独特的当代建筑实践展示平台,通过对画廊展馆建造过程的研究揭示了项目中建筑师与结构工程师的特殊关系并探讨了这种关系对最终设计成果的影响。     

Teaching sustainable design in architecture education: Critical review of Easy Approach for Sustainable and Environmental Design (EASED)

In the current context of climate change and ecological awareness, designing sustainable environments is definitely understood as a shared responsibility. With the construction sector consuming half of the world׳s energy, the role of some key stakeholders such as architects becomes even more critical when providing responsible and relevant design for the built environment. Thus, improving the way our environments are being designed challenges some cultural systems that show evident limits, such as the training of future architects and engineers.In this research, the focus is on architecture students and aims to demonstrate how the use of a new sustainable performance simulation tool, called Easy Approach for Sustainable and Environmental Design (EASED) could contribute to educate them about innovatively sustainable design. This was assessed through the evaluation of student engagement, their use of the tool and its appropriation. Results show that individual work was not convincing, whereas success was met during group work. Limits and improvement possibilities were found in the interface of EASED as well as in the educational set up of the tool.     

Sustaining Technology

To attempt to capture the extent of the engagement in environmental and ecological issues by architects during the early 1970s as viewed through the pages of AD is an issue in itself. The editorial policy of the magazine at that time was such that it actively commissioned articles and global surveys that would inform the profession of the environmental impact of construction long before ‘sustainability’ became a convenient buzz word. Robert Webb is one of a new generation of environmental engineers who acknowledges a debt to those who helped to define the terms we use so readily today. He sees how architects fell off the environmental wagon during the middle of the 1970s and are only now beginning to climb back on, but wonders how much understanding of our planet has been lost in the interim. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The propensity for employee participation by electrical and mechanical trades in the construction industry

Using the four input-output tables compiled in Turkey to date, the aim of this paper is to examine the construction sector's role in the Turkish economy and analyse its relationships with the other sectors of the national economy. Analysis results show that the share of construction in Gross National Product (GNP) and National Income (NI) tend to increase whereas the GNP share of manufacturing is relatively stable and that of services tend to increase after an abrupt decrease in 1985; backward linkage indicators and output multipliers, as well as forward linkage indicators and input multipliers of construction industry are stable; and finally, direct and total construction inputs from manufacturing show relative stability and those from services tend to increase in recent years. These findings point out the similarities between the Turkish construction industry and some advanced industrial countries (AICs) like Japan and Italy showing signs of growing ‘maturity’ of the Turkish economy.